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The Thirst For Righteousness · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

0:08
SPEAKER_00: Who the sun sets free is free indeed.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about that as we were as we were singing.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: And there are so many things that you could you can celebrate.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people celebrate free from freedom from some of the sins and habits maybe that they were once involved in.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: And I certainly have a lot of that.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking of, you know, the guilt, the shame.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: This is what the good news, this is why we're so excited about being able to bring what we do.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, this place is founded on just just having a place to say what we know about the grace of God.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Because it has changed and it's changing our lives.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And it's the best news, the best news that I've that I've that I've ever heard.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to get into something here that is talked about a lot.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: We know it's in the Bible.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: This word is thrown around a lot.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And it's called righteousness.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that as much as we'll use that word and we see that word in the Bible, we read about it, a lot of people really don't even know exactly what it is.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to try to define it, among other things, this morning.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Try to define it and really have a good uh a good look at it this morning.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: And I've and I'm I'm excited about it because I think it'll bring out so much to us as we look at it.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: Um I remember some time ago, people would ask me things like, Who are you in Christ?
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the verse would come up, Well, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: But I really didn't even know what that meant.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I knew it meant something good.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: You know righteousness is something good, right?
1:57
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be something good.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: God made us righteous, he gave us righteousness, and uh Jesus came in righteousness.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: We know it's good, and he gave us that, but let's look at it this morning.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And I want to start in 2 Corinthians, uh, no, I want to start with uh Matthew chapter 5.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: And uh this is where Jesus is speaking his Sermon on the Mount, and I want to look at verses 3 through 6.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And he says in verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Now pause just a moment and think about that.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: What are the poor in spirit?
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Those that don't feel like they've got much spiritually, not much spirit.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Who would the poor in spirit be?
2:41
SPEAKER_00: It'd be somebody maybe that feels like I'm just not very spiritual, right?
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Poor in spirit, having poverty of spirit, not abundant of spirit, not rich in spirit, not somebody that thinks, oh, I'm so spiritual, I'm glad for that, and I'm so in in touch with the spirit.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: These are those that say, I'm I'm poor in spirit.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: These are the ones you talk to and you you're trying to tell them about the goodness of God, and they're just like, yeah, that's just hard for me to get.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: I just don't, that's poor in spirit.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: These are those that are like, I just never hear God.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: That's that would be maybe poor in spirit.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: These are those that are like, it's just, I don't know if I can, you know, can connect with God.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I know you're all excited about that, but I just don't, I don't know.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't make much sense to me.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Poor in spirit.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: And he says, you're blessed.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those that just can't get it, just can't connect.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who just can't see it.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Why?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, because yours is the kingdom of heaven.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Now he's announcing something here because Jesus came in and he's about to bring in a revolution, a whole new thing.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: That's why he preached repent or think again, because the kingdom is at hand.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: So blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is yours.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the one that hasn't been able to get up, the one that hasn't been able to get it, the one that hasn't been able to see it, the one that hasn't been able to think it up, get ready because even though you're poor in spirit, maybe you're outcast in spirit.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: I can see in Jesus' days, uh, I would say Zacchaeus would be poor in spirit.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
4:14
SPEAKER_00: But what happened to him?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: The woman caught in adultery might be considered poor in spirit.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: The man uh in Gadera might have been considered poor in spirit.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: You see where Jesus is going with this?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: He says, blessed, because it's all different now.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have to be stuck like that.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Yours is the kingdom of heaven.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: He's announcing a change of things here.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: You didn't feel like you'd ever get out of it.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Things would never be never be good again.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to bring something really good.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the meek, for they'll inherit the earth.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: And blessed are those, look at this.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: Y'all familiar with that verse?
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I preached it a lot over the years.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't count how many times.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: And I, what, and I'll just give you my perspective on it, or at least what I have, when I would look at this, I would see Jesus saying, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be filled.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: So I took it that Jesus was saying, here's what I want you to start doing.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: I want you to start hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: That's what I saw.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: And I just, and and I and I would preach it.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: I would just say, Come on, we need to start hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and we would would project it in a way to where it seemed like the height of spirituality was to be someone who was hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And I probably, there was a time, a period in my life where I probably preached hunger more than anything, trying to inspire a hunger in the people who would hear me, trying to get people to hunger more, because it's just, that's just how I took it.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: But notice here, he says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall keep hungry and thirsting.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: He said they'll get filled.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's another thing I used to add on to this.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I used to preach about the living water that Jesus gives.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know this is gonna sound stupid.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: You're already laughing.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, you already know it's gotta be stupid if Rick's telling you that, right?
6:31
SPEAKER_00: But but I would say this: I would say, I would say, once you taste the living water that Jesus gives, you're just gonna get so much more thirsty for more.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: You just you you're just gonna want it more and more and more.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: And that makes that sounds good, doesn't it?
6:47
SPEAKER_00: But it's not what it says.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like it hit me one day as I'm just going across there and I'm reading it, and he said, and he said, He that drinks the water I give shall what?
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Never thirst again.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And I was preaching the opposite of that.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: I said, if you drink the living water, you're just gonna thirst for more.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Now that sounds good.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Seems hit your brain right, but it's not what Jesus said.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Because his whole point was not that he wanted a people to be hungry and thirsty.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: His whole point was he wanted a people to be filled.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: That's why he came.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: So then why did he say that you're blessed if you hunger and thirst?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, the blessing is because you get filled.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain what I mean by that.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes and he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, was he telling people to go become poor in spirit?
7:43
SPEAKER_00: No, there were already people poor in spirit.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And he says, All you guys that think that you've just gonna miss out, uh-uh, it's gonna be easy for you.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you something free.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna have to live up to a standard, you're not gonna have to please the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all those guys.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have to have to fulfill a law that you can't fulfill.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: You're blessed because I'm about to do something here.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And blessed are those who've hunger and thirst for righteousness.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Who are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Everybody.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Everybody has hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: They may not, they won't call it that in most cases.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: They don't know that.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: But they're hungering for this thing that we call righteousness.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: Simple definition would be rightness or right standing.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: People are groping for it, craving it, seeking it in all kinds of things, trying to get better in this way and that way and the other, trying to fulfill some craving, some desire in some way.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And people always trying, and even in religion, and in even in a religious Christianity, uh I talk about me living in that way for so lit uh for so many years, where I where it was like I never could be complete.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: I never felt complete, I never felt full, I never felt like I could get to the top of the mountain, never felt like I was there.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I was still craving.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And I was missing this part that I could be filled.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: And I was involved in this lifestyle of just hungering and thirsting because I thought that that's what you were supposed to be.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: And that really changed when I got a revelation of God's of God's grace and realized his grace was sufficient for me, and I thought, oh, this isn't some lifelong journey of trying to climb up some holy hill.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: You finally get a revelation of God's goodness and his grace, and you look around, and you're like you're standing on a mountaintop, and the way I describe it is you don't see any footprints of yours leading up to this hill because you didn't climb this hill.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: You were set there, you were put there because of what Jesus did.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: He gave you righteousness.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: I hungered and I thirsted.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Didn't know it was righteousness or rightness that I was hungry and thirsting for, but all of mankind craves it.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: They want to be right.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: You ever met anybody that wants to be right?
10:06
SPEAKER_00: That's determined to be right even when they're wrong?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: You ever met somebody rather than being corrected and being made right, they just want to be right?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: They want to be right.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: So we sort of missed it, or we can miss it, by thinking that he's telling us.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: See, I I took it that he was telling us to go hunger and thirst.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: But I was already hungry and thirsty.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And I was trying to fulfill it in so many, so many ways.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Some people try to fulfill it in ways that look more productive.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I tried to fill it in ways that looked more destructive.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: But either way, we're craving that rightful place that we sang about this morning.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: We're craving being satisfied in daddy's house.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: We're craving being comfortable in daddy's house, we're craving being having this freedom, this wholeness, where there is no more shame, there is no more guilt, there is no more sense of unfulfillment or or incomplete.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible declares we're complete in Him, right?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: As a part of that right, righteousness.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Another verse that I would misconstrue is found in uh Hosea chapter 10, verse 12.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Sow for yourselves, righteousness, reap in mercy.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Break up your fallow ground, for it's time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness on you.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So here's me again.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: Come on, church, let's break up that fallow ground.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: What's that mean, Pastor?
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Pray more?
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Break it up.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: Break up, you know, get rid of your sin.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh break it up.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, break up your fallow ground.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: It's time to break up your fallow ground because it's time to seek the Lord.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Be in church.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, everybody, before we get started, let's all just seek the Lord.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And I guess we were kind of used to it because people would, a lot of them would get on their knees and they'd start praying.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: I guess that's what it meant to seek the Lord.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Looking for somebody, seeking the Lord.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: You ever stop and think about it?
12:26
SPEAKER_00: It's time to seek the Lord, God.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take the next 10 minutes and let's just seek the Lord.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And everybody like looking under chairs.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Where'd he go?
12:32
SPEAKER_00: I know he was here somewhere.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Like he's playing hide and seek.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: But seek the Lord as if he's gone, as if he left when he said he doesn't leave, but but we didn't have an awareness that he was near and dear to us and he was with us the whole time, and we're looking for him.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And he seemed like he played hide and seek.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: He seemed like he almost didn't want to be caught, didn't want to be found sometimes.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And it would take a long time.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And in some churches, they would take all night long seeking seeking the Lord, trying to find the Lord.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: He says, it is time to seek the Lord.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: We might think, well, it's time to seek God because our country's in a mess.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: It's time to seek God because we have any.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: And there's there could be truth in all of that that you know that we can touch on and operate in, but but but really biblically is what I want to get at.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: In reality, I want us to see something clear that he says, it would he said back in Hosea's time, Old Testament, way long time ago, he said, it is time to seek the Lord.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: So when Hosea said this, it was time to seek the Lord, and he said, just do it until.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Keep doing it.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Until.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: What's until mean?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Until is the time it changes.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Do it until what?
13:52
SPEAKER_00: He comes and reigns, we have the scripture, until he comes and reigns righteousness on you.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: When do you think it's gonna be?
14:02
SPEAKER_00: When will Jesus ever come and reign righteousness on us?
14:07
SPEAKER_00: When's that gonna happen?
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Will it be what you call the second coming of the Lord?
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Will it be the next great revival and outpouring?
14:15
SPEAKER_00: Is that what it's gonna be?
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Is that what we're to be seeking until he comes and reigns righteousness on us?
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Should we have a church service this morning and let's just take time seeking the Lord until after a few minutes something special happens and that's when he will come and reigns righteousness on us?
14:32
SPEAKER_00: When will he come and reign righteousness on it?
14:35
SPEAKER_00: The answer is that he did, right?
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: The answer is that he did.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's when it happened.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: And when I got my revelation of grace, it all pointed back to Jesus being enough, the operation of God through Christ on the cross, shedding his blood, dying the death, raising from the dead, all everything that that did and that spoke and that meant and that accomplished and that fulfilled, everything about it says Jesus was more than enough, that his grace is sufficient for me.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: God loves me, all is good.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: I am have been restored, I've been made free, I have been made the righteousness of God, or I have been made righteousness in God.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: I have fulfilled God's righteousness through Christ.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: This is why we celebrate Jesus.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: This is why we like to listen to messages.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: We like to hear people preach and teach that are Christ, Christ, Christ centered, that make him the hero, right?
15:53
SPEAKER_00: That make him the hero and not try to make us become the hero some way.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Are you hearing me this morning?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the definition of righteousness.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's try to let's try to really define this thing.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: So the Hebrew word for righteousness, I pronounce it Sidcanu, it means to be right, to be just, to be declared innocent.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: This is what we gather around all the time around Jesus, that we're declared innocent, that we are justified, that we have been made right.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus said, Blessed are those who haven't had that.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Because now you will.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful feeling to be in Daddy's house, to be in his presence, to be with him, and know that he really loves you.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Just like you are, that there is nothing between you and him, that there's no that has there's no reason for any sense of guilt or inferiority or anything.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: And you have a, and and and and if you've if you if you accept this, something happens to you, the Bible says that the Spirit of God would convict or convince you of righteousness.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: You believe it.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: You feel it, it becomes who you are.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And and it shifts from from you looking at you and your flesh and all the greatness of it and all the shortcomings of it.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: It takes it completely off of you and it gets it into reality.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Reality of who you are, and reality of who God is with you, and reality of your eternal being with him and in him, and reality of your oneness with him, reality of your rightness with God, that you absolutely belong in union with him, that you belong in his presence, you belong in Daddy's house, that you belong in no place more than you belong right there in Daddy's uh arms with him in his place.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And you feel that and you know that because the work of righteousness does that.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Isaiah said that when it happens, that work of righteousness would be peace.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And the effect of righteousness would be confidence and assurance forever.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: That is freedom from any guilt, any inferiority, or any sense of any shame involved in that.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a miracle when I just think of my own self and I think of of of where this, where I where it all started, as I started out poor in spirit.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Even before I came to Christ, people preaching to me and witnessing to me, testifying to me, and I'm just like, that's that's cool for you.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: That's just not my jam.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I'm not interested.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I don't see it.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely poor in spirit.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: How do you get from there to here?
19:25
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be a miracle of a work of righteousness, it's gotta be a miracle of the spirit's convincing and the conviction and and the and the miracle of the spirit revealing his goodness and his glory to you in such a way that he changes your mind about everything.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus meant when he said, when the Spirit of truth comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convince you of righteousness.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: How many know what I'm talking about?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: That you have been being convinced of this righteousness that is bestowed, it's imputed to you, it's given to you out of the goodness of God and out of the good will of God.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: This is what he wanted from the beginning when he made mankind.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: This was why the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, and it all got fulfilled on the cross with the death, burial, and then the resurrection of Christ.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: The work is finished, it's done.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Welcome home.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: We are in the Father's house today.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever and ever.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: It's based upon who we are with him, it's based upon our sonship, based upon our relationship, our identity with him.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: It is not earned.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: We do not become right with God because we do right things.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: It's based upon our relationship with him.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 5, verse 20, Jesus spoke about this righteousness and how powerful and how big and how good it is.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: He said, For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will know by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: I like how uh uh when I was listening to uh Leslie last week, and she was talking about the rich young ruler, and he's and he comes to Jesus and says, What must I do?
21:14
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Well, you know the law here.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I've done all that.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: I've done all that.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: But then she, you know, Leslie brought out how what was he doing?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: He he was wanting more, wasn't he?
21:29
SPEAKER_00: He was wanting more.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, I've done that.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And I so rel I could so relate to that because I'm like, I'm doing everything I know to do.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm in this thing.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: What else can I do here?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: And trying to fulfill righteousness that way.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying trying to do that.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: And the rich young ruler says, I've done all that.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: And of course, in the story, Jesus brings out, he says, Okay, well, if you want to be perfect, if you want to be perfect, you know what Jesus did so often with that?
21:58
SPEAKER_00: This is what confuses some people.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: About his teachings.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: It's what he would do, he was exposing the futility of trying to fulfill that law in your ability and you're in your flesh.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be perfect, go and do something.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: What did he do?
22:10
SPEAKER_00: He gave him something that he knew he couldn't do.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And the guy went away sad, excuse me, and unfulfilled because it was too much.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was always showing them it's too much.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Basically, he was saying, You're all poor in spirit.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Told the Pharisees, if you'd admit it, you'd be okay.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: But you say that you can see.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: But to the ones that knew they were poor in spirit, it seems like they accepted Jesus so easily and so readily.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: But our righteousness had to exceed what the Pharisees were doing.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, it did.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody preach this one time.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: He was basically preaching for us to even be better than the Pharisees, to try to even try harder than the Pharisees, to live a more clean and what he thought was a holy life compared to the Pharisees.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: He said, Jesus actually raises the standard even more.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, he does, but not in that way.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: The way that he raises the standards he gives is that his righteousness is God's righteousness, not the righteousness of the Pharisees.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: He said, You've got to do better than what they're doing.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: No wonder people like Peter would say, Well, who then can be saved?
23:18
SPEAKER_00: And what did Jesus say?
23:19
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can be saved that way.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible with man.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: But with God, it's absolutely possible.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Why?
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Because with God it's grace.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: With God, it's given.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: With God, it's the free gift.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: With God, it's the gift of love.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what illustrates this more than anything that I know.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: It's the parable of the prodigal son.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And uh because when you look at that story, here's a son that comes with a plan.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to come and be a servant because I'm no longer worthy to be called his son.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell my father I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: What's that?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Guilt.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Inferiority.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Shame.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: So here's somebody that, and he's going to come and and and serve his father.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm a little bit funny when I hear it pressed too much in Christianity, this thing about serving, serving, serving, serving, serving God, serving the Father, serving the Father, because I've been in that and I know what it did to me.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Not that service doesn't happen, it does.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it right now.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: But the motivation is not to become worthy or try to appease, to please or appease, or not because there's going to be some punishment if I don't.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: I believe God loves me so much, and I believe I'm called to minister the word of God.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I believe that's my calling in life.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I've been doing it for as long as I can remember.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: But but I don't think that I've heard people say, well, if I didn't do that, you know, God showed me that that I that I would die or something horrible would happen, or and I don't connect with that at all.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not, I don't know Daddy that way.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: The way I know him, I think if I just said, God, I don't want to do this anymore and walked away, then he'd still love me and bless me anyway, because that's him.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Not based on me.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that he's just so good, how do I shut up?
25:25
SPEAKER_00: You know?
25:27
SPEAKER_00: How do I, how do I not?
25:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it brings such joy to talk about God.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: On the way, we do this a lot of times.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: On the way here, when I know I'm gonna speak, I'm like, we get to say some good things about God today.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: It's one of my it's one of my favorite things to do.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm not doing it here, we're doing it at home.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: We're doing it in the car.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: We're doing it, we're just, it's just, this thing has consumed us because it's become so real and so good.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: And this is coming from somebody who started out so abjectly poor in spirit.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Did Rick suddenly find a way to become good?
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Not in the least.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that's ever brought this joy and this peace was a revelation.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: The realization, the knowledge that it's been by God's goodness, by his grace and his grace alone, that all of this is real.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful God.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I can handle that.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Me who was poor in spirit, me who was lacking in all this sense, in any sense of rightness or righteousness, struggled with it even in my early years of Christianity because it was hard for me to conceive of being right with God.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: And always trying to get right.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Boy, you could preach a message on get rid of the sin, and I'd I'd find more.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: I thought I was clean.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: I'd I mean, I'd, you know, I quit this habit, quit that one, and before I came to church, I repented of everything else I didn't know.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: And and then you could preach on sin, and I'd still find one somewhere, like, oh God, you know, and always trying to become fulfilled, for complete, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, trying to complete a righteousness of the Pharisees.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said it's got to go, it's got to go beyond that.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: And the righteousness that we're talking about is the righteousness of the prodigal son's father.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And here he comes with guilt and inferiority and shame, and the father would have none of it.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: The father bestowed upon him his goodness.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: The father didn't say, Son, I'm willing to give you your right standing again.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: All you got to do is do these three things.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: He didn't do that, did he?
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Not once.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Don't even see him pausing or thinking about it.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: What we do is we see him doing the right thing, the righteous thing.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: And that was putting the robe on his son.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: That was putting the family uh ring upon the son's hand.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: That was God restoring righteousness to the Son.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Now let me say something about that.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: According to that son, according to that child, that offspring of the Father, the prodigal son, according to him, his mind, he lost his righteousness when he did the dirty deeds he did.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: According to the daddy, he's still my son.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: According to the daddy, he still belongs in the house, not out in the field.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: According to the daddy, he still gets to wear the good robe.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: According to the daddy, he still deserves the ring upon his finger.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: According to the daddy, the daddy didn't need righteousness restored in his mind, because in his mind, this is my son.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: He may have been out there like he was dead, but he's come home and I'm throwing a party.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: And I'm making him the man of honor because he deserves it.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Deserves it.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Went and spent all his money on prostitutes and all this thing.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: He deserves it because he's my son, telling the other brother basically, he belongs in this house too.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: He's every bit my son, has nothing to do with what he did do and what he didn't do.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: That would be the righteousness of the Pharisees.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: He's got a righteousness that exceeds that.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: He's my son, he belongs here.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: You have no sense of guilt or inferiority because you belong here.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: You belong here.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: I like what I heard one person preaching one time, and he talked about what that thief on the cross, where Jesus said, Today you'll be with me in paradise.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I can imagine, you know, that the thief dies on that on that cross next to Jesus and he finds himself in paradise.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Woo! And people are like, What did you do to get here?
29:47
SPEAKER_00: He's like, the guy in the middle said I could.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I did was stole from somebody.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: But it was because of him.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
30:00
SPEAKER_00: The guy in the middle said, Why are we here?
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Because of Jesus.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: We were made the righteousness of God through him.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Why do you deserve the goodness of the Father?
30:14
SPEAKER_00: Because what Jesus did is what he really did was he restored a righteousness to you.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: But remember, even before Jesus did that, the Father, God, so loved this world, already loved you.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: His mind didn't change about you.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your mind was wrong about you.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: I know mine was.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm so thankful.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad for the Holy Spirit?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that He's got a way of teaching us?
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad he's got a way of making this real to us?
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Where it becomes real.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I am so, so glad that I know where I belong now.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: I got a feeling of being right.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: It feels righteous.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: I got a feeling of uprightness.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: A righteousness that's not measured by your flesh's strength or your weaknesses.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: It's a whole, it takes you out of that world, doesn't it?
31:15
unknown: Wow.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you don't have that, it's like, okay, Isaiah 64, 6 said it this way.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: This is old, Old Testament Isaiah here, but we're all like an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness are like filthy rags.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Contrast.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Psalms chapter 1 says that we would be like a tree planted by rivers of living water.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: You like to do Bible studies and comparisons there.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I see in Ezekiel 47, trees planted by the river of living water, on both sides of the river.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 22, the last page of the book where it says we win, you know, what we see is a beautiful restoration of all things.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, get to Revelation 22, the last page of the of the book, and you see this beautiful restoration of all things, and you see these trees again planted by the river of living water.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Our leaves would not fade nor wither.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 10, Paul talks about it.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Talking about the Jews.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: And he loved them and he prayed for them.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: And he said, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: From the day I met Jesus, I had a zeal for God.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: But I had ignorance too.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: He says, They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: So you can be very serious, very devout, very passionate about this.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: But it's the truth that makes you free.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you the truth this morning.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: But not according to knowledge.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: They got passion, they got zeal, but they don't know.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, their own right standing with God, to establish their own uprightness.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: What does that do when you seek to establish your own uprightness?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: It makes you want to kill adulterous women that Jesus thought was precious.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Makes you hate thieving tax collectors that Jesus thought was precious.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Seeking to establish their own righteousness.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Takes a submission where you bow your knee and say, I'm gonna let it be about you.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll wear the robe.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, give me some cake.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's I like to say, that was when the prodigal son repented.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Not before he, not while he was in the pig pen and decided to come home.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: That's not when he repented, because his mind was had not been changed yet.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: He still thought the same way about his father and about himself.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: The prodigal son repented, when the Bible says it repents, that it's the goodness of God that leads us to a mind change.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: So this is why people will accuse us of being out of balance, hyper grace, too much love, too much goody-goody, too much positivity.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: Our minds have been changed.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: We're not caught in this false sense of balance between grace and guilt and condemnation.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: We've been and are being convinced of rightness, righteousness, right standing.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Our declaration of innocence.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: No wonder we love him.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: They seek to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: I love the way it's worded.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Submit it, just surrender to it.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: I'll take it.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: And if your mind still screams, but I'm not worthy, then let it submit and say, Wear the robe anyway.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Wear the ring anyway.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: Eat that calf, have some cake.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: That promise of the law-bringing righteousness that people carried, Jesus is the end of that.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: And we didn't accept this robe and this ring and this fatted calf.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: We didn't accept this so we could say, oh goody, now we get to break all the commandments of God.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: We accepted it because we saw our Father's goodness to us and it touched our hearts.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: And we're glad to be home.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness establishes your standing with your Father.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: It establishes your identity.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: It establishes your confidence, your peace, and your freedom with God.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: It's the end of striving to become better.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 61, 3 says, He came to console those who mourn in Zion, to give us beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, so that we would be called the trees of righteousness.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: The planning of the Lord that he may be glorified.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand up with me?
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to pray over you.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Pray for you.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Speak some words.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 22, 17 says, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: And let him who says, Come, let him who is thirsty, let him come freely.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: Why is this the best news that anyone's ever heard because of the word freely?
38:30
SPEAKER_00: How y'all doing this morning?
38:32
SPEAKER_00: Y'all feel right with God?
38:35
SPEAKER_00: No guilt, no condemnation, no sense of spiritual inferiority.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the spirit of wisdom and revelation that we can behold and see and know.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I pray for a spirit of conviction, convincing.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Let everyone know, even as they go out of here today with a new song in their heart and a spring in their step, let them know that they wear the robe, they wear the ring of the family of God, that they are in right standing with God for once and now forevermore, and don't ever have to fear sin or the guilt of it or the condemnation or the punishment of it again.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: We're home and we're in Daddy's house.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: And we give you all the glory.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: And everybody in the house today said, Amen, amen.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: God bless you guys.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day.